WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 35,000 fugitives across the United States were arrested in June as part of an annual sweep that teams the U.S. Marshals Service with local law enforcement in a summer push to clean up the streets, U.S. Marshals said Thursday.
U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark says unregistered sex offenders were a major target.

U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark says unregistered sex offenders were a major target.

Among the 35,190 fugitives apprehended during Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Operating Nationally) were 2,356 fugitive sex offenders, the service said.

"This might be considered the cream of the crop for the most violent felons that are out there. For example, we arrested 433 murder suspects," said U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark at a Chicago, Illinois, news conference.

In the course of the operation, the marshals also confiscated 82 firearms and 2,400 kilograms of narcotics. "Often when we find fugitives in hiding, we have other fruits of their crimes: firearms, drugs, some other evidence of some type of criminal activity," Clark said.

Unregistered sex offenders were a major target, Clark said.

"We highlighted one [case] here in the Chicago area. It involved an individual who was alleged to have molested a 9-year-old girl. He had violated his parole, and after an investigation he was located," he said. "There's evidence of further crimes that happened since he didn't register as a sex offender. This is typical of the type of individual who is out there, somewhere on the streets of America, and is often harming children or others."

One operation involved a Cleveland, Ohio, Police SWAT team and the U.S. Marshals, who were following a lead on Jeremiah Jackson, 29, who was wanted for murder, accused of shooting a woman in the back during a robbery.

On June 9, the team surrounded a house where an intelligence surveillance team said Jackson might be. Jackson was reported to be armed and dangerous. But Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Koerbel said once Jackson saw the team, it had its man.

"When he saw he really had nowhere to go, he gave himself up," said Koerbel. "He made the statement, 'I'm the guy you're looking for and I'll come right down.' "

In Cleveland, Koerbel said, the program was a success.

"We were able to arrest 1,211 people in a 30-day period. Five were for homicides," he said.

Typically, the U.S. Marshals office in Cleveland arrests about 100 fugitives in any given month. "This is just the type of operation that brings us all together and shows we're a force of one and shows the community we're here and this is a safe place to raise a family," Koerbel said.

Jackson was jailed on $10 million bond. He has not entered a plea on the murder charge, but his father, Willie James Jackson, told CNN affiliate WJW the police have the wrong man.

Oh my god. Looks like they finally found a use for all that wire-tapping-homeland-security-information stuff.

30,000 criminals rounded up in one swoop huh. Did they just suddenly decide to bust all the people they've been planning to arrest at once or something? What the hell were the other 32396 unaccounted for people arrested for? Personally, something like this has a certain kind of ambiguity to it that makes me suspect this isn't as simple as it seems.

Prisons are overcrowded enough as it is. The only thing that makes prison riots easier is dumping convicts into a prison that is already overcrowded and understaffed.

Roughly 1 in 100 residents of the US are in prison. The real job is rehabilitating inmates, and preventing crime in the first place, but instead they go do this crap with their money.

For one, they could start by reclassifying sex offenders, as in a lot of states, a 16 year old can fuck a 16 year old, and both still be classified as a sex offender. It's that sort of stupid bureaucratic BS that makes prisons overcrowded in the first place, the US justice system has absolutely no discretion.

"This 19 year old had consensual sex with a 17 year old, lock that monster the fuck up!"

Aside from that, punishments are far too intense for Marijuana possession and dealing. I'm sure a large portion of people stuck in prisons are ones who decided to toke up on a drug that is completely natural, and has no proven side effects other than damage from smoke inhalation (but lets face it, inhaling any smoke is bad for you)

Okay. But it won't solve anything. Criminals won't become any less criminal just because you lock them up, in fact it might even make them worse. You have to prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place, through social rehabilitation and economic equality.

I wish they would do that here in the uk, we would get rid aton of illegals, remove gun crime, and all that stupid drug trade, i mean, the uk is about the same size as the state of washington, maybe smaller.

Prisons are overcrowded enough as it is. The only thing that makes prison riots easier is dumping convicts into a prison that is already overcrowded and understaffed.

Roughly 1 in 100 residents of the US are in prison. The real job is rehabilitating inmates, and preventing crime in the first place, but instead they go do this crap with their money.

For one, they could start by reclassifying sex offenders, as in a lot of states, a 16 year old can fuck a 16 year old, and both still be classified as a sex offender. It's that sort of stupid bureaucratic BS that makes prisons overcrowded in the first place, the US justice system has absolutely no discretion.

"This 19 year old had consensual sex with a 17 year old, lock that monster the fuck up!"

Aside from that, punishments are far too intense for Marijuana possession and dealing. I'm sure a large portion of people stuck in prisons are ones who decided to toke up on a drug that is completely natural, and has no proven side effects other than damage from smoke inhalation (but lets face it, inhaling any smoke is bad for you)

I wish they would do that here in the uk, we would get rid aton of illegals, remove gun crime, and all that stupid drug trade, i mean, the uk is about the same size as the state of washington, maybe smaller.

+SUPPORT FOR THIS BEING DONE IN THE UK !

Has been done, immediatly after Colin Gunns arrest about 200 dealers and runners were arrested. Granted it seems a small amount to the OP but it pretty much took out the Drug Trade in my neighbourhood.